Z12. 



Colonial Dv^jclopmciit 



AN ADDRESS 



Delivered by Ges'l I]dw. McCrady 



BEFORE THK 



SOUTH CAROLINA :«0C1ETY 

OB' THE 

Colonial X)amcs of Clmerica, 

APIOL 2B, 1897. 



CHARLESTON, S. C 

LiTCAS & Richardson Co., Book vnd Job Printp-ks, 
No. 130 East Bay StIvLIKt, 

1.R97. 




Glass. 
Book. 



y-LlZ. 



. AV»7 



'1. 







Colonial Development. 



FROM AN EMIGRANT CAMP TO A WELL- 
ORDERED STATE. 



General Edward McCrady Addresses the Society of the Colo- 
nial Dames of South Carolina on " The Social Development 
of the Colony During the First Hundred Years of its 
Existence "—Locke's Fundamental Constitutions and the 
Foolish Attempt to Establish an Aristocracy and Deprive 
Freemen of their Rights Under the Royal Charter— Social, 
Political and Educational Characteristics of Life in this 
Province— Particular Attention Paid to Education and 
the Liberal Arts -The Highest Standard of Culture on 
this Continent— Liberality in Gifts to Northern Colleges— 
A Stinging Rebuke to John Bach McMaster and his Slan- 
derous Historical Allusions to South Carolina. 



Ladies of the Society of tlie Colonial 
Dames of South Carolina: In accepting 
the invitation wi'th which you have hon- 
ored me 'to 'address you upon this occa- 
sion— 'the first on which you commemoraite 
the settlement of the province — I can pro- 
pose for 'O'ur consideiraiion no subject more 
suited to the purposes of your org-aniza- 
tion than that of 'the siocial developmemt 
of the co'lo'ny during the first hundred 
years of Its existence. I shall ask you to 
follO'W me then, while I briefly trace the 
progress of this development from its 
beginning in the emigrant camp on the 
Ashley to the time when joining the other 
American colonies in throwing off their 
depemdence on the mother country South 
Carolina sitood before the world a State— 
a State fully equipped for political ad- 
ministraJtion, posses'sing great wealth, 
with a society already famed for its re- 
finement, eduoat'i'on and initellectual pow- 
er; ready at once to assume a leading 
position in the confederacy which she 



entered— a position of far more influence 
than was warranted by the number of 
her population. 

When King Charles II, upon his restora- 
tion, rew'arded wi'th a grant of the prov- 
ince of Carolina his followers and favor- 
ites—the great Earl of Clarendon; the 
famous Gen George Monck, Duke of Albe- 
marle; the old Earl of Craven, whom 
Macauray describes ae famous in his youth 
"in love and war;" Lord Berkeley— "Jack 
Berkeley"— to whose care His Majesty 
had committed His Queen in a 

great emergency; Anthony Cooper, 
Lord Ashley, tfie subtle and uncer- 
tain politician whom it might be wiser 
to please than to offend; Sir George 
CaiPterelt, the last to lower the royal ban- 
neir, which only he had done at the King's 
command; Sir John Colleton, who had 
spent a fortune in the King's cause; and 
Sir William Berkeley, who had held Vir- 
ginia for his Majesty while he was in 
exile— it might have been supposed that 



a body, composed of men of such coin- 
manding- ability and great political expe- 
rience, men who had been eng'ag-ed in the 
business of making and unmaking of 
Kings 'and commonwealths, would have 
possessed sufflcienit political sag-aci'ty 
wisely to have provided for the founding 
of a great province. But such was not 
the result. At first, indeed, these great 
and wise men, to whom the grant was 
made because, as it was said, of their 
•'laudable and pious zeal for the propaga- 
tion of the Christian faith and the en- 
largement of his Majesty's Empire and 
dominion," did not seem to know what to 
do with the viast domain committed to 
their government. Besides forming them- 
selves into a joint stock company, ad- 
vertising for colonists, some feeble efforts 
at exploration of the co'asts, appo'inl;- 
ing Sir William Berkeley, one of their 
number, then in Virginia, Governor, and 
attempting a small settlement on the Cape 
F'ear, "that the King may see we sleep 
not on his grant," they did nothing until 
1669, when Lord Ashley assumed a lead- 
ing part. 

THE FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITU- 
TIONS. 
It so happened that at this timie the 
great philosopher, John Locke, was living 
with Lord Ashley, at Exeter house:, his 
lordship's London residence, as his private 
secretary, and to him Lord Ashley com- 
mitted the work of drawing up a scheme 
of government for the province they 
owned. Of the result of the philosopher's 
labors, supported 'as it was by Ashley, 
now become the Earl of Shaftesbury, it 
is difficult to speak with moderation. Re- 
co'llecting Shaftesbury's genius and his 
character it is scarcely more possible to 
believe that he really approved of this 
preposterous production than that he 
really credited the extravagant lies 
of Oates, in which he also' professed belief. 
But however that may be, under his in- 
fluence Locke's famous "Fundamental 
Constitutions,' as they were styled, were 
gravely and solemnly adopted by the Pro- 
prietors at a meeting at the Cock Pit in 
July, 1669. This most extraordinary 
scheme of setting up an aristocratic gov- 
ernmenit in a colony of adventurers, in 
j the wild woods amidst savages and wild 
I bdasts, began with a recital that it was 
to be made agreeable to monarchy, and 
"to avoid erecting a numerous democ- 
racy.' 

The royal charter constituted the pro- 
vince a county palatine— a term derived 
from (Comes Palatii,) a title formerly 
given to some great dignity of the royal 
household, and becoming the title of a 
Governor of some local district with the 
authority and privileges of vice royally. 
The first thing to be determined, therefore, 
was who should be the palatine. To do this 
tiie first clause of the Consti- 
tution provided that the eldest of 
the Lords Proprietors should be 
invested with this vice reg-al dignity. 
Then they provided for some other great 
officers: an admiral, chamberlain, chancel- 
lor, constable, chief justice, high steward 
and treasurer. These offices were to be 
enjoyed by none but the Lords Proprietors. 
Having thus provided for each an office 
of high sounding dignity, they seized upon 
a clause in their charter which is found 
in one or two earlier charters, but which 



had never been thought applicable to the 
beginning of a colony, namely, that which 
empowered the Proprietors tO' confer upon 
such of the inhabitants of the province 
such marks of favor and titles of honor 
as they shotild think fit— toj provide for 
a provincial nobility. The. whole province 
was to be divided into counties; each coun- 
ty into eight signories; eight baronies 
and four precincts; each precinct into six 
colonies. Each seignory, barony and colo- 
ny was tO' consist of 12,000 acres; the eight 
signories to be the shares of the eight 
Proprietors; the eight baronies, the shares 
of the nobility; both of which shares, be- 
ing each of them one-flflb of the whole, 
were to be perpetually annexed the one to 
the Proprietors, and the other to- the he- 
reditary nobility, leaving the colonies, con- 
sisting of three-fifths shares, to the people, 
so that in setting out and planting the 
lands, as they sententiously observed "the 
balance of the government may be pre- 
served." 

LANDGRAVES AND CACIQUES. 

Besides the Proprietors the nobility wae 
to consist of Landgraves and Caciques. 
These terms were chosen because by the 
provision of the charter the titles be- 
stowed were to- be unlike those of Eng- 
land. The title Landgrave was borrowed 
from the old German Court, and that of 
Cacique from the style of the Indian 
chief of America. There were to be as 
many Landgraves as there were counties, 
and twice as many Caciques and no more. 
These were to- constitute the hereditary 
nobility of the province, and by right of' 
their dignity to- be members of Parliament. 
Each Landg-rave was to have four baro- 
nies and each Cacique two' baronies hered- 
itarily and unalterably annexed to and set- 
tled upon the dignity. It was provided 
that "in every signory, barony and manor 
all the leet men shall be under the juris- 
diction of the respective Lords of the said 
signory, barony or manor, without appeal 
from him," Who were to be leet men 
was not declared. 

We have not time to follow further the 
provisions of this remarkable scheme ex- 
cept to- observe that in preparing and 
adopting- them the Proprietors appear to 
have been oblivious of the essential fact 
that under the royal ^charter, l>y which 
alone they could prescribe constitutions, 
and laws for the province, such laws could 
only be enacted "by and with the advice, 
assent and approbation of the freemen 
of the said province." Was it likely that 
such freemen would ever consent to trans- 
fer the rights which had been secured them 
by the royal charter to an aristocracy, over i 
whom they could have no control?. 1 

The whole scheme was visionary, crude, 
incomplete, impracticable and ridiculous. 
For a province yet to be settled in which 
society must build itself up from its very 
foundation, at first at least, beginning in 
its simplest and rudest forms, an artificial, 
elaborate and intricate system was pro- 
vided, among the regulations for which it \ 
was deemed opportune to establish a Court 
of heraldy with powers to regulate fash- 
ions, games and sports! 

LORDS PROPRIETORS ORGANIZE. 

Having determined upon this model of 
a government, the Proprietors met again 
at the Cock Pit, on the 29th October, 1669, 
and proceeded to organize under it. Th? 
Bai-1 of Clarendon was in exile, alreadj 



deserted by his royal master, so fhe Duke 
of Albemarle was chosen the first Pala- 
tine., the Earl of Craven the first high con- 
stable, the Lard Berkeley the first Chan- 
cellor, Lord Ashley the first Chief Justice, 
Sir George Carteret the first admiral. Sir 
John CoiletO'n was already dead, and so 
his son, Sir Peter, was made the first 
hig-h steward. The next step was to pro- 
vide .the means of starting- this g^rand 
scheme in operation. So they entered into 
an agreement that each should contribute 
£500, to be' laid out in shipping arms, am- 
munition, tools and provisions for a settle- 
ment at Port Royal, and £200 per annum 
for the next four years. A fleet of three 
ships was purchased, and laden with stores 
sufficient, as it was thought, for jjlanting 
a colony of two hundred people, a number 
which was supposed to be strong enough 
for self-protection and to make a perma- 
nent settlement. 

The fleet was dispatched, not directly 
across the Atlantic, but was sent first all 
the way down to B'arbadoes, which lies, 
you know, but a little north of Venezuela, 
South America. There it was to- receive 
a large addition, and to be sent back to 
the coast of Carolina. At Barbadoes it 
met with disaster. One of the vessels, the 
Albemarle, was lost in a gale and both 
the other vessels, the Carolina and the 
Port Royal, were in.iured. Supplying the 
place of the lost ship with another, the 
fleet again set sail for Bermuda, but on 
the way the Port Royal was cast away 
on one of the Bahama islands. Obtaining 
another vessel at Bermuda, the emigrants 
again set sadl for the province they were to 
colonize. The Carolina was the only one 
of the original fleet to reach this coast. 
The colonists first landed on the 17th of 
March, 1670. This landing Was at Sewee, 
Bull's Bay. . Thence they coasted along to 
Port Royal, where they were instructed 
to settle; but the Indians there being hos- 
tile, they finally settled down, probably 
some time in April, on the west bank of 
theAshley at the place until but recently 
famTTiarT>' known as "Old Town." 

THE BEGINNING OF CHARLESTON. 
Vfireater incongruity can scarcely be con- 



cefv'^Trthan that which existed between 
this little emigrant band that landed on 
the Ashley and the grand fundamental 
constitutions which they brcrtTg1iT~t>ut with 
them as'^^tbe— pten and- -model of the gov- 
ernment they were to- establish. We have 
a list of the passengers on the Carolina, 
the only one of the original fieet to arrive. 
In the list of the ninety^three who came 
out in this vessel sixteen were masters, 
bringing out with them sixty-three ser- 
vants, and thirteen persons without ser- 
vaots. The rest of the emigrants, those in 
the other vessels, were doubtless of the 
same character. 

Sir John Yeamans. whose father, an al- 
derman Of BTtstoi, had been beheaded dur- 
ing the revolution in England, and who 
himselfTiad been knighted for his loyalty 
to the King in Barbadoes, was expeeted to 
have ee-me tiut from that island with the 
colony, and a commission had been sent 
him as Governor to be used with his own 
name or that of such other person as he 
s'hould appoint. He went from Barbadoes 
with the colony as far as Bermuda, but 
there abandoned it. appointing William 
Sayle^ of Bermuda, an old sea captaTiTarnd 
arTuTitan, as the Governor of a colony 



charged with ©stablisihing the Church of 
England as "the only true and orthodox 
and the natural religion of all the King's 
domains." It was a hard set which the 
good, but bigoted, old man had to control, 
and for which he had only the Funda- 
mental Constitutions and a system of tem- 
porary laws, scarcely less absurd, as his 
guide. While Governor Sayle and other 
leaders O'f the colony were doubtless men 
of strong religious character, the company 
generally was composed of adventurers o'f 
the ordinary type— men no ddtiTn of irre- 
ligious aiKfTeckless lives. And so we read 
that on the 4th July, the Governor and 
Council having been informed how much 
the Sabbath day was profanely violated, 
and of divers grand abuses practiced by 
the people to the great dishonor of Al- 
mighty God and destruction of good neigti- 
borhood, took seriously into consideration 
by wha.t means these evils might be re- 
dressed. And here the absurdity of the 
grand model of government with whidh 
they had come encumbered, and the in- 
adequacy and unsuitableness of their 
powers, even under the instructions to the 
Governor and Council, became apparent. 
The Governor, Puritan as he was said to 
have been, writes, in June, begging the 
Proprietors to send them a minister, "a 
Godly and orthodox minister," and partic- 
ularly asks for on© "Mr Sampson Bond, 
heretofore of long standing in Exeter Col- 
lege, in Oxford, and ordayned by the late 
Bishop of Exeter, the ole Do'r Joseph 
Hall." And Florence O'Sullivan and Ste- 
phen Bull and others again unite in Sep- 
tember, in a letter urging the great want 
of an able minister by whose means cor- 
rupted youth might be reclaimed and the 
people instructed." "The Israelites' pros- 
perity decayed," they said, "when their 
prophets were wanting, for where the Ark 
of God is there is peace and tranquillity." 

GLIMPSES OF EARLY SOCIETY. 

Before Courts were regularly established 
the Govefnor and Council, besides acting 
in their legisTatrv'e capacities, administered 
rough justiceln the colT)ny; and from frag- 
ments of the journals which have come 
down to us we catch some glimpses of the 
state of s'ociety during the first two' years 
of its existence. For instances — we find 
the Council hearing a controversy by 
John Norton and Original Jackson 
against Mr Maurice Mathews, Mr Thomas 
Gray and Mr William Owens, and decid- 
ing that John Norton and Original Jack- 
son sh^^ll have sixteen pieces of cedar tim- 
ber desired, and one piece more claimed 
by Messrs Mathews, Gray and Owens. 

Then Capt Lieut Robert Donne, who had 
come out on the Carolina as a servant to 
Stephen Bull, has a sui tagainst Mr Henry 
Hughes, whereupon it was ordered that 
Henry Hughes should pay one bushel of 
corn to the said Robert Donne for his la- 
bor and pains on the said Henry Hughes's 
plantation. And considering how indus- 
trious and useful Richard Rowser and 
Philip Jones, servants tO' John Maverick, 
had been to the colony, tO' each of them 
was given ten acres of land. And so on, 
the Grand Council arbitrate matters and 
settle disputes. But here we have a sad 
case on the criminal side of the Court. 
Mr Henry Hughes comes before the Coun- 
cil and makes co^mplaint against Thomas 
Screman, gent, "for that the said Thomas 
Screman, upon the day of October, 



1671 at Charles Towne, in this province, 
did feloniously take and carry away from 
the said Henry Hughes one turkey cock 
of the price of ten nence, of lawful English 
money, contrary to the peace of our Sov- 
ereign Lord, the King," etc. The Coun- 
cil proceeded to try Thomas Screman, gent, 
on this charge, and found him guilty, and 
thereupon passed this sentence: "And it 
is therefore, ordered by the said Grand 
Council, that the said Screman shall be 
stripped naked to his waist and receive 
nine lashes, a, whip for that use provided, 
upon his, naked back by the hand of John 
Oldvs, who is adjudged by the Grand Co^ln- 
cil 'to be stripped naked to his waist to 
perform the same, for that the said 
John Oldys, knowing of the felonious act 
after it was committed, aided the said 
Screman, and endeavored to conceal the 
offence." But worse and worse! They 
found that Capt Lieut Donne, in whose 
favor they had just decreed a bushel of 
corn, was also guilty of "comforting, aid- 
ing and assisting- the said Screman to com- 
mit the fact," and thereupon they ordered 
him toi appear at the head of the com- 
pany whereof he was captain lieutenant 
with a sword on, which the marshal 
should lake away from him,, and he be 
cashiered from having any further com- 
mand in the said company." Capt Lieut 
Donne was not long in disgrace, however, 
for we And him six months after made 
a full captain and sent upon an expedition 
against the Indians. 

COLONISTS FROM BARBADOES. 
It happened that just about the time of 
t.he founding of the province of Carolina 
there was quite a movement from Barba- 
does. Trouble about the land titles, over- 
crowded population, exhaustion of the 
soil, and repeated hurricanes, caused quite 
an exodus from that island to Carolina 
and Jamaica. Sir John Yeamans and the 
Colletonis secured a considerable part of 
this emigration to this province. This 
Barbadian influence was most potent in 
the formation of the society of Carolina. : 
T.hese people brought with them a colonial ' 
society, already greatly developed. They 
were not like the emigrants direct from 
i England, new to colonial life, and new also' 
to the rule and management of negro i 
■ slaves. To colonial ways they were accus-; 
I tomed, and they broiight with them the) 
laws and customs of Barbadoes with reJ 
; gard to slaves. T.he peculiar parish sys-j 
/' tem, whichi existed until the late war, was' 
I derived entirely from this source. Our 
earliest statutes in many instances were 
but copies of those of that island. This 
is particularly true of our slave codes. 
rThe English colonists who came out with 
,' Sayle were very jealous of this influence. 
1 Besides a small number of Dutch from 
\ Nova Belgia, or New York, these were 
the only elements of population during 
riie first ten years of the colony, while its 
seat was at "Old Town" on the Ashley. 
/ In 1680 the first of the Huguenots came 
/out under Peitit and Grinard. and upon the 
I revocaition of the Edict of Nantes, in 1686, 
^■Kuiny more. Then in 1685 a very considera- 
ble number of Disse-nters came, under 
Blake. Morton ami Ax tell. There can be 
noi doubt thait these last comers. Hugue- 
nots and Dissenters, were, as a class, men 
of higher charadter than tho'se who had 
(come out under Wes't and Sayle. They 
\were exiles for religion sake, and not 



mere adventurers, seeking to better their 1 
fortunes. In, tlhis little eo'I'ony there were i 
aissembled. representaitives of all the pas- 
slions and a,nimosiities which had distract- ' 
ed England for the lasit half century. , 
These emigrants had changed their skies, J 
but nolt their minds, and the controver- I 
siesi of the old country were all renewed i 
here in miniaiture. 

A BAD TIME THE WORLD OVER. 

I eanno't picture to^ myself thait this 
province Wais a pleiasant place to have 
lived in during the flrsit thirty years of 1 
its exisiteince. The colony was an outpost 
planited to- assert the right of England to 
disputed terri'tory. and hence it lived in 
consltant dreiad of Spanish and French I 
invasion and the tomahawk of the Indian, 
while its co'as't wais plundered by pirates, 
and within it wais, in, one continual politi- 
cal turmoil. But would the eolonists have 
been happier elsewherei? Would the Scot's 
who were raided and slaughtered by the 
Spaniards a-t Port Royal have been more 
secure in their native land, while Claver- 
house was harrying the hills and moss- 
hag and slaying the Covenanters there? 
Would the Huguenots on the Santee have 
been miore peaceful in France under the 
drag'onade which followed the revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes? Were the Indian 
tortures any more cruel than those in- 
flicted upon the Covenanters in Scotland 
and Huguenots in France? For instance, 
did Lawson, whom the Indians stuck all 
over with pine splinters, which they set 
on fire, die a more agonizing death, think 
you. thain those who expired in the pres- 
ence of the- Privy Council of Scotland 
upon "the extreme question" under the , 
rack, the thumb-screw and the boot? or 
tha,n the Huguenots in France who were , 
tortured ait slow fires by roasting- their 
handis and feet? Would Blake, Morton 
and Axteill have been more content under 
James had they remained in England? 
Would even the churchmen have been 
safe from the perjured accusations of ■ 
Titus Oates in the Court over which Jef- 
fries and Scruggs presided? Would any 
Wave been more safe in Mas.sachusetts, 
where they may have been burned for 
witchcraft? or in Virginia, where they 
may have been hung in Bacon's rebellion 
by Governor Berkeley, one of the Proprie- 
tors of Carolina? No! Those were the days 
of fanaticism and cruelty everywhere. 

There is nO' dull page in the history of 
these times in Carolina. It was all move- 
ment and life. First there was the long — i 
controversy over the attempted enforce- . ( 
ment of the absurd Fundamental Con- \ 
stitutlionsi, and then over the Church Acts. J, 
But all the while the colony was stea,dily, 
if slowly, improving and becoming a com- 
pact body of sOiCiety. 

At the opening of the new century we 
mu.st cease, says Rivers, to look upon 
South Carolina as the home of indigent 
emigrants struggling for subsistence. 
While numerous slaves cultivated the ex- 
tensive plantations, their owners, educated 
gentlemen, had abundant leisure for social 
intercourse, living, as they did, in prox- 
imity to each other and easy access to 
Charles Town, where the Governor re- 
sided, the Courts and the Legislature con- 
vened, and the public offices were kept. 
The road which led from the fortified town 
between the two broad rivers— known as , 
the Great Path (what is now King street 



road)— sOi enchanted Governor Archdale 
that he believed no* prince in Kurope, 
with all his art, could make a walk for 
the whole year round so pleasant and 
beautiful. From the road to the rig-ht and 
left avenues of oaks in mossy fes- 
toons, and in spring-time redolent with 
jessamines, gave the passer-by glimpses 
of handsome residences. Hospitality, re- 
finement and literary culture distinguished 
the higher class of gentlemen. 

BRIDGE TOWN AND CHARLES TOWN. 

We have some slight sketches of the 
manners of the times at the beginning of 
the eighteenth century. It happens that 
we have two almost cotemporaneous ac- 
counts, one of Barbadoes and one of Caro- 
linia, and from these it is easy to observe 
the similarity of the manner of living in 
the tw'O' places., and then of ascertaining 
whence that of Carolina was derived. 
Pere Labat, a French missionary, visited 
Barbadoes about the came time as Law- 
son, the adventurer among the Indians, 
first visited Charles Town. Oldmixon, 
doubtless following Labat, says that the 
masters, merchants anjd planters in Bar- 
badoesvHved like little sovereigns in their 
plantatioihs; they had their servants of the 
household and those of the field; their 
tables were spread every day with a va- 
riety of nice dishes, and their attendants 
were more numerous than many of the' 
nobility in England; their equipages were 
rich; their liveries fine, and horses the 
same; their chaises and all the con- 
veniences of travelling magnificent. The 
most wealthy of them, besides their land 
teams, had their pleasure boats to make 
the tour of the island^ in, and sloops 
to carry their goods to ' and from the 
Bridges i. e,, Bridge Town. Their dress 
and tlVat of their ladies was fashionable 
and costly, and, having been generally 
bred in London, their behavior was gen- 
teel and polite; in which, says the author, 
they had the advantage of most of the 
country gentlemen of England, who, living 
at a distance from London, frequented the 
world verj' little, and from carousing with 
their dogs, horses and rude peasants, ac- 
quired an air suitable to their society. The 
gentlemen of Barbadoes were civil, gen- 
erous, hospitable and very sociable. In 
sihort, says Oldmixon, the inhabitants of 
Barbadoes live as plentifully and some of 
them as luxuriantly as any in the world. 
They have everything that is requisite for 
pomp and luxury. 

Lawson found no such brilliant jewel- 
lers' and silversmiths' shops in Charles 
Town as Labat did in Bridge Town, for 
Barbadoes was much older and as yet 
much richer than Caro-Hna;-)3Ut the society 
they describe is the same. The merchants 
of Carolina, says Lawson. are fair and 
frank traders. The gentlemen seated in 
the coiuntry are very courteous, live very 
nobly in their houses and give very gen- 
teel entertainments to all strangers and 
others that come tO' visit them. Both seem 
equally struck with the well discijilined 
militia, especially the cavalry. In Bridge 
Town a review was held for Pere Labat, 
in. which five hundred gentlemen turned 
out, admirably mounted and armed. Law- 
sen says that the horsemen in Carolina 
are mostly gentlemen, and well mounted, 
and the best in America. Their officers, 
both infantry and cavalry, generally ap- 
pear in scarlet mountings, and as rich as 



in most regiments belonging to the Crown, 

which, he observes, shows the richne'ss 

and grandeur of the colony. 

LANDGRAVE SMITH'S COURTING 

DAYS. 

There is, on the other hand, a tradition 
coming, it is said, from the second Land- 
grave Smith, of a much more simple state 
of society. In his courting days, which we 
may assume to have been the last years of 
the century, he said young giris received 
their iDeaus at 3 o'clock, having dined at 
12, expecting them, to wit.hdraw about 6, 
as many families retired to bed at 7 in 
the winter, and seldom extended their sit- 
ting in the summer beyond 8 o'clock, their 
fathers having learned to obey the cur- 
few toll in England. The rooms in those 
days, from his account, were all uncar- 
P'Sted, the rough sides of the apartments 
remained the natural color of whatever 
wood the house chanced to be built of. 
Rush bottomed chairs were usuai. It must 
be remembered, .however, that Landgrave 
Smith belonged to the party in which the 
stiff and rigid morals of the Puritans were 
cultivated, and He watt tells us these were 
made the object of ridicule by their neigh- 
bors. In all probability the people were 
as much divided in their habits and man- 
ners as in their politics, and the division 
ran along the same iines of Ciiurchmen 
and Puritans. 

If Ramsay's statement that the early 
settlers had no sooner provided shelter and 
the necessaries of life than they adopted 
measures for promoiting the moral and lit- 
erary improvement of themselves, and 
particularly the rising generation, is some- 
what strained and overdrawn, it is never- 
theless remarkable, that notwithstanding 
the constant political turmoil, the con- 
tinued apprehensions of war and actual 
and repeat'ed invasions of the province, 
so mucli was conceived and attempted in 
these respects. But few of the first set- 
tlers, as may well be supposed, brought 
with them wives or children. The neces- 
sity for schools, therefore, did not begin 
for some years after the founding of the 
colony. But before the seventeenth cen- 
tury had closed the number of children 
began to demand schools and religious in- 
struction. 
EARLY ATTENTION TO EDUCATION. 

Lawson S'ta,tes that froim the fact that 
the people lived in a 'town they had 
drawn "iingeoiSoius people of most sciences 
whereby they had tutors among them 
tlhat educated their youth a la mode." 
"A free school," as it was called, was 
estalbli'she.d in 1711. with the assistance of 
the SO'Cie'ty for the Pro.pagatio.n of the 
GoBipel. This school, it is true, was not 
altogether a free school, for only a limited 
number of scholars were educated with- 
otit pay. But still it was an attempt in 
that direction. This school, in connection 
with St Philip's Chiu'ch, was m'aintained , 

until the Revolution. ^^ 

FIRST PUBLIC LIBRARY IN AMER- 
ICA. 

That mian.y of the colonists were edu- 
cated and accustomed to liteirary pursuits 
there is labundant eyidence. Indeed as 
eariy as 1698, but thirity-flve years after 
the first charteir of the province, but 
twenty-eight after founding of the col- 
ony, and thir'ty-'twO' years before Frank- 
lin formed "The Junto" and debating 

I 1 •: , 



society out of which grew the Philadel- 
phia library, which he claimed to be the 
moifher of all American subscription 
libraries, a free public library had been 
esifiabllshed in Charles T'own. This is be- 
lieved to have been the firs't public library 
in America. 

The people of Carolina never accepited 
the Fundamen'tal Constitutions, and so 
never having the proper formal sanction 
those laws were never cjonsititutionally of 
force. But i't is undoubtedly true that 
their partial enforcemenit liad a most de- 
cided effect upon the institutions of the 
colony and impressed upon the people and 
their cust'oms and habits the tone and 
temper of that insitrument. The province 
was in fact, to a consiiderable extent, laid 
out in seig'nories, baronies and colonies, 
and landg-raves and caciques were actu- 
ally appointed and took possession of 
these sig-niories and baronies. Some tracts 
of land are still called baronies and bear 
the names then given tlhem. But large 
tra:Cits 'Oif unprofitable lands could not well 
sustain the dignity of a landgrave or 
caciaue and quit-rents were hard to fol- 
low." So, thoug-h intended to be perpet- 
ually annexed to these grand titles, they 
were soon sold piecemeal to commoners. 

PROSPEROUS TIMES; 1728-1763. 
The Proprietary Government was over- 
thrown in 1719, but it was not until near 
ten years after that the Royal Govern- 
ment was fully established. Then fol- 
lowed the days of prosperity. The years 
that elapsed between 1728 and 1763, says 
Mr .Justice Johnson, in his work upon 
the life of Greene, were years of unprece- 
dented prosperity. The increase of popu- 
lation was immense, and in the enjoyment 
of unexampled liappiness the people be- 
came gay, polished and devoted to hos- 
pitality. Among- those who passed the 
m.eridian of life during that period it was 
always affectionately remembered by the 
appellation of "the good old times." So- 
ciety, he observes, was at that time pre- 
cisely in that state which is most favor- 
able tO' the enjoyment of life. The luxu- 
ries of the day were within the reach of 
a moderate fortune, and few cared, he 
said, to be elevated above one common 
level. Hence social happiness was not dis- 
turbed by the workings of envy or the 
haughty demeanor of upstart pride. 
, The first and second Georges, says Ram- 
say, were nursing fathers to- the province, 
and performed to it the full orbed duty of 
Kings, and their paternal care was re- 
turned with the most ardent love and affec- 
; tion of their subjects in CaroUna. T.he 
; colonists enjoyed the protection of Great 
I Britain and in return she had a monopoly 
,of their trade. The mother country re- 
ceived great benefits from this Intercourse, 
and the colony under her protecting care, 
became great and hapijy. The people were 
fond of British manners, even to excess. 
To such an extent wasi their prejudice 
carried that Drayton adds they could not 
imagine that elsewhere than in England 
anything of advantage could be obtained. 
They were not satisfied— it was said, but 
which I very much doubt — unless the very 
bricks with which- their houses were built 
were brought from England. Though un- 
suited to the- climate, they modelled their 
houses after the houses in London, and 
English country seats. Their furniture 
and carriage horses and chairs or coaches 



must all be imported. In vain did tlie 
coach makers in Charle'stown advertise in 
tlie Gazette that they could build as good. 
The tailors and milliners brought out the 
fashions from London. On February, 1751, 
a peruke maker from St James, London, 
advertises his arrival and that he lias 
taken a shop in Broad street, w^here he 
intends to follow his business, and has 
brought over with him a choice assort- 
ment of English hair, and other materials 
belonging to his business, and he promi- 
ses both ladles and gentlemen that their 
business will be done according to the best 
and newest fashions, and that they shall 
be fitted to the greatest nicely, and that 
the wigs shall never shrink on the fore- 
top parts or come down, and he promises 
the ladies that their "tetes" shall be made 
in such perfect imitation of their own 
hair that it will be difficult to discover 
any difference. \ 

The households were organized on the 
English model, except in so far as it was 
modified by the institution of slavery, 
which modification was chiefly in the 
number of servants. 

COLONIAL HOUSEHOLD SLAVES. 

In every well-regulated planter's house- 
hold there were three high positions, the 
objects of aimbition of all the negroes on 
the plantation. These were the butler, 
the coachman and the patroon. The but- 
ler was chief of all about the mansion, 
usually the oldest negro> man servant on 
the premises; his head was often white, 
the contrast of which with his dark skin 
was striking and added much to the dig- 
nity which lit was always his care and 
pride to maintain. His manners were 
formed upon those of the best of the so- 
ciety in which his master moved, and, 
with all, he possessed greater ease than 
is usual in a white man occupying a sim- 
ilar position. He became an authority 
upon matters of table etiquette and was 
quick to detect the slightest breach of it. 
He considered it a part of his duty to 
advise and lecture the young people of 
the family upon the subject. He often had 
enitire charge of the pantry and store 
room keys and wasi faithful to his trus't. 
He was somewhat of a judge, too, of the 
cellar, but there are s)tories that show it 
was scarcely safe toi allow him free access 
to its contents. The coachman, to the 
boys of the family at leas>t. Was scarceily 
less a character than the bu'tler. He had 
entire charge of the home stables, and 
took the utmosit pride in the horseman- 
ship of his young masters, to whom he 
gave the first lessons in riding. The but- 
ler might be the greatest man at home, 
but he had never the glory of driving the 
family coacih and four down the "Great 
Path" to town and through its streets. 
The oldest plantations were all upon the 
rivers; indeed a water front and landing 
Was an essential to such an establisih- 
ment, for it must have the perriaguer for 
pilantation purposes, and the trim sloop 
and large cypress canoe for the master's 
use. So'. besides the master of the horse, 
the coachman, there Was a naval officer, 
too, to eiach planter's household, and he 
was called the patroon^a name no doubt 
brought from the West Indies. The pa- 
troon had cliarge of the boats, and the 
sounding of his horn upon the river told 
the famiily of his master's coming from 
town. He, too, trained the boat hands 



to the oaiT and taugHt them the plaintive, 
humorous, happy catches which they sang 
as they bent to the stroke, and for which 
the mother of the family often strained 
her ear to catch the first sound which told 
of the safe return of her dear ones. Each 
of these had his underling-s over whom 
he lorded it in imitation of his master. 
The house was full, too, of maids and 
seiamstre.s-ses of all kinds, who kept the 
mistress busy, if only to find employment 
for so many hands. 

Outside of tlie household the "driver" 
was tlie great man. Under his master's 
rule he was absolute. He was too great a 
man to work himself, and if tJie master 
was anybody— that is, if the plantation 
was of respectable, size, with a decent 
number of hands, he must have a horse 
tO' ride, for how else could he oversee all 
his people? The driver was the executive 
officer. He received his orders from .his 
master and he carried them: out. He did 
all the punishing. He was responsible for 
the administration of the plantation. 

A plantation was a community in itself. 
It had its necessary artisans. There must 
be carpenters, blacksmiths, coopers, tai- 
iors and shoemakers. Then there was a 
hospital for the sick, and a house for the 
children while the mothers were at work. 
All these required thorough organization 
and complete system. There were no 
doubt many and great evils inseparable 
from the institution of slavery; but these 
were reduced to a minimum on a well 
ordered Carolina plantation. Generally the 
slaves were contented and happy, and 
shared in the prosperity which their labors 
on the new rice fields were bringing to 
their masters. 

A LOVER OF HORSES. 

The Carolinian, like a true Englishman, 
was devoted to held sports. He rode from 
his infancy. Attempts have been, made 
to show that horses were natives of Amer- 
ica, azid plausible arguments have been 
adduced to establish the fact, but Bar- 
tram, the best authority, informs us that 
the horse was not originally found in the 
possession of the Indians. Wherever in- 
troduced on the coast by the colonists 
horses multiplied rapidly, deteriorating, 
however, in size. In the low-country, and 
especially on the sea islands, a race was 
produced known as "marsh tackies," 
which when bred with fresh stock from 
England, made the most superb riding 
horses. Great attention was paid 
to the breeding of these horses. 
The finest stock was imported 
from England for the purpose. They were 
trained to. two gaits — the canter and the 
w^alk — and in these they were unsurpassed. 
The trot and pace were seldom used. These 
saddle horses were excellent hunters, and 
thong.h but of medium size would seldom 
hesitate to take a six-rail fence at a leap. 
The boys and giris learned to ride upon 
the tackies, which were usually not more 
than ponies in size. The low-country was 
not suited to the chase. It was too much 
cut up with mar.shy creeks and swamps to 
allow a long run. The great sport was 
deer hunting. There was a hunting club 
in St Andrew's Parish as early as 1761. 
The club house still stands on the grounds 
of the church. The members brought their 
hounds and guns there, once a month on 
club days, and in turn provided the en- 
tertainment. 



HORSE RACING IN 1734. 

The Carolinians were fond of horse rac- 
ing. As early as Februarj', 1734, we find 
in the Gazette a notice of a race for a 
saddle and bridle, valued at £20, as the 
prize — mile heats. This race took place 
on a green on Cliarlestown neck. The 
course was staked out for the occasion. 
In the following year, 1735, owners of 
horses were invited, through the Gazette, 
to enter them for a purse of £100. This 
year a course was laid out at the Quarter 
House, about six miles from the town, 
to which the name wtas given of the York 
course, after that in England which was 
then attaining celebrity as a race ground. 
From year to year racing was continued 
over the York course, either in the month 
of February or the beginning of March, 
the prize generally being a silver bowl or 
a silver waiter or a salver, about the value 
of £100 currency, probably from $75 to $100 
of our present money. Silver, in some 
form, continued to be the prize and the 
plate of many families in the colony was 
considerably increased by the prizes won 
on the turf. The York course proved to 
be too far from the town, so a new course 
was established in 1754, and laid out on 
what is still known as the Blake lands. 
It was announced to the public as the 
New Market course, about a mile from 
the town. Races took place there for the 
first time on the 19th February, 1760, un- 
der the proprietorship of Mr Thomas 
Nightingale. From this time an increased 
interest was manifested in the sports of 
the turf. Races were announced to take 
place in vaa-ious sections. In 176S there 
were races at Jacksonborough, in 1769 at 
Ferg-uson's Ferry and at Beaufort, and 
soon after at Childsbury and Strawberry. 
The races at the last named place were 
kept up by Mr Daniel Ravenel and the 
Harlestons. The principal importers and 
breeders of race horses appear to have 
been Thomas Nightingale, Daniel Rav- 
enel. Edward and Nicholas Harleston, 
Francis Huger and Williams Middleton.' 
Josiah Quincy. in his journal in 1773. when 
he "happened" to be in Carolina for his 
health. w^ich, however, was strong 
enough, I observe, to have allOTved him to 
go everywhere and to take notes of the 
political opinions of the hour in this prov- i 
ince. gave quite an interesting account of 
his visit to the races in Oh'arlestown in 
that year. 

But malaria drove the planter to town 
or to some summer retreat every spring 
before the blossom of the highly-scented 
magnolia had fairly opened, and there he 
remained with his family until the next 
hard frost, visiting his plantation from 
week to week, usually in his well-manned 
canoe, which the patroon brought for him. 
These collections of planters and their 
families during the summer months pro- 
duced a society of wealth and leisure and 
formed liabits of city life. For such a so- 
ciety amusements and entertainments, 
grave and trivial, must be provided. 

MUSIC IN COLONIAL. DAYS. 
The people were as fond of indoor amuse- 
ments as of field sports, and music was 
cultivated at a A-ery early period. The Ga- 
zette of the 17th February, 1733, announces 
that "at the Council Chamber on Monday, 
the 26th instant, will be a consort"— (pre- 
serving the old spelling a little later than 



usual)— "of vocal and instrumenlal music. 
Tickets to be had at Mr Cook's and Mr 
Saureau's, at 40 S. N. B.— None but Eng- 
lisJi and Scotch songs." The next year a 
similar advertisement appears for a "con- 
sort" on the 19th of February, (1734,) wirh 
a note that it would begin at 6 o'clock. 
The "consort" was repeated this year on 
the 18th of December, and in January and 
March following two' more were given. 
These were advertised for the benefit of 
Mr Slater and tickets were to be had of 
Mr Stephen Bedon and Mr Roper, in Broad 
street. This 1735 was a gay year, notwith- 
standing that the good Governor, Robert 
Johnson, died and was buried in St 
Philip's, near the chancel. 

A THEATRE BEFORE 1735. 

There were not only concerts, but a new 
theatre was opened. And this leads us 
to point out that there was then a thea- 
tre in Charleston even before 1735. 
In the Gazette of February, 1735, 
we find an advertisement: "At the 
New Theatre, Queen street, will 
be acted on Monday next, a tragedy 
called "The Orphan, or the Unhappy Mar- 
riage.' " There must then have been a 
theatre before this new one opened in 1735, 
and that theatre was iindoubtedly the first 
theatre in the American colonies, the 
next being in 1749 in Philadelphia. On 
the 2Sth (February, 1735,) there is an- 
noiinced: "By the desire of the troop and 
fooit companies, at the New Theatre, in 
Queen street, will be acted on Tuesday 
next a comedy called 'The Recruiting Of- 
ficer,' with several entertainments, as will 
be expressed in the hand bills." For 
March, the 12th: "The London Merchant, 
or the History of George Barnwell," is ad- 
vertised. By the end of 1735 society had 
advanced from the concert stage to that 
of a public bail. On the 22d of November 
we find in the Gazette this notice: "At 
the Court room, on Monday, 15th of De- 
cember next, will be a ball, to begin at 
5 o'clock. No person admitted but by 
printed ticket. Henry Hall, Master." 
There was no society reporter in those 
days, so we have noi account of hov^r long 
the ball, which began at 5 o'clock, lasted. 
Landgrave Smith must have had the fix- 
ing of the hours. In January, 1737, is ad- 
vertised to be performed "The Tragedy of 
Cato, written by the late Mr Addison 
with a prologue by Mr Pope." "Tickets 
to be had at Mr Charles Sheppeard's, stage 
and balcony boxes 30 shillings; pitt 25 shil- 
lings; gallery 5 shillings. To begin exact- 
ly at 6 o'clock." From' this time on we 
find concerts, theatrical performances and 
balls constantly occurring until May 23, 
1774, when the Gazette announces that the 
American Company of Com'adians finished 
their campaign here on Friday last, having 
acted fifty-eight plays from the 22d of De- 
cember last, a list of which it promised 
to in.sert in its next issue, and according- 
ly on the 30th it has quite a long review 
of the theatrical performances of this com- 
pany, which, it says, were warmly coun- 
tenanced and supported by the public. In 
the catalogue of pieci^s performed during 
this time we find all the standard plays 
of t.he day. Of Shakespeare's they pre- 
sented "Hamlet," "Romeo and Jul'et," 
"Merchant of Venice," "R'chard HI," 
"Henry IV," "Othello," "King Lear," 
"Julius Caesar," "Macbeth" and "King 
John." Of others "The Mourning Bride," 



"She Stoops to Conquer," "Beggars' 
Opera," "West Indietn," "Fair Penitent." 
""Tempest." 

ORIGIN OF THE ST CECILIA SOCIETY. 

On the 5th November, 1737, the Gazette 
announces that at the New Theatre, on 
Queen street, on Thursday, the 12th, being 
St Cecilia's Day. will be performed a con- 
cert of vocal and instrumental music. 
This was probably the origin of the St 
Cecilia Society, which was not formally ( 
organized, however, until 17G2. Josiah ; 
Quincy, on his visit m 1773. before referred \ 
to, attended a concert by this Society, and 1 
in his 'journal gives us quite a pleasant \ 
sketch of the society he met. He describes ; 
the concert hall as a large, inelegant i 
building situated down a yard. At the 
entrance he was met by a constable with 
his staff. To this officer he offered his 
ticket, which was subscribed by Mr David 
Deas, who had given it tO' hirn. He was 
directed to proceed by the officer and was 
next met by a white waiter, who directed 
him to a third, to- whom he delivered his 
ticket, and was conducted in. The music, 
he says, was good— the bass viols and 
French horns were grand. He tells of one 
Abercrombie, a Frenchman — curious name 
ror a Frenchman— just arrived, who played 
the first violin and solo incomparably bet- 
ter than anyone he had ever heard. So 
i rich was the Society that the violinist, who 
I could not speak a word of English, had 
! a salary from it of five hundred guineas. 
j Mr Qudncy gives a very interesting ac- 
' count of the entertainment. There were, 
he says, two hundred and fifty ladies pres- 
ent, and it was called no great number. 
In loftiness of the head dresses, he says, 
these ladies stoop to the daughters of the 
North; in richness of dress surpass them. 
In taciturnity during the performances, 
greatly before our ladies; in noise and 
flirtation after the music is over, pretty 
much on a par. "If our ladies," he writes, 
"have any advantages it is in white and 
red, vivacity and spirit. The gentlemen, 
many of them, dressed with richness and 
elegance uncommon with us; many with ■ 
swords on." Lord Charles (jreville Mon- 
tague, the Governor, who was to sail the 
next day for London, was present to bid 
farewell to the people, among whom, not- 
withstanding their political differences, he 
had many personal friends, to whom he 
was noi doubt much attached. Mr Quincy 
was presented to his Exeeiiency by Mr 
Deas and to Chief Justice Gordon and two 
of the assistant Judges, recently arrived 
from England, who were thus received by 
the Society, thoug;h there was much sore- 
ness upon the subject by reason of their 
being sent to fill places of honor which of 
right belonged to the many worthy men 
in the province. I need not tell this audi- 
ence that the St Cecilia Society has since 
had a cointinuous existence to this day. 
In the Act incorporating it in 17S4 is re- 
cited that its members liy voluntary con- 
tributions had raised a considerable fund 
and collected a number of musical instru- 
ments, books and other property for the 
purpose of encouraging the liberal science 
of music. Is it not a pity that it has lost 
its musical character? 

SOCIAL AND CHARITABLE SOCIE- 
TIES. 
Social and charitable societies were al- 
most cpeval with the Royal Government; 



and in almost every instance education 
was a part of their work. Both Hewatt 
and Ramsay mention the South Carolina 
Society, in whose hall we are now assem- 
bled, as the oldest, but there were three 
others before it. The St Andrew's Club, 
which soon after became the present St 
Andrew's Society, was founded in 1729. We 
find in the Gazette of 25th April, 1733, a no^ 
tice that "on Monday last (i. e.. 23d) was 
established the 'St George's Society.' in 
honor of the patron of England, and John 
Bayly was chosen president, and at night 
they had an elegant supper at the house 
of Mr Robert Raper." There was a Welch 
club, but we know nothing more of it than 
a notice in the Gazette of rather an up- 
roarious meeting on St David's Day, 1735. 
upon which occasion some members fired 
off guns after dark, contrary to law. The 
■ South Carolina Society was first organized 
in ]73(?. under the name of the French 
Club, sometimes called the Two Bit Club. 
It was the club of the Huguenots. In 1751 
it was incorporated as the South Carolina 
Society. Its history and good works are 
fa:mlliar to^ us all. The Winyah Indigo 
Society, formed about the year 1740. though 
not incorijorated until 1756, was originally 
a social club, which met once a month 
to discuss the latest news from London 
and the culture of indigo. But upon the 
abandonment of the culture of indigo the 
work was wholly confined to education. 
\ EARLY CARE FOR THE INSANE]. 

The Fellowship Society deserves particu- 
lar notice. It was begun on the 4th April, 
1762, that day being a Sunday, but it was 
no desecration of the Lord's day, for it 
truly had good works for its object. Its 
original purpose was that of founding an 
infirmary or hospital for the reception of 
lunatics, and other distempered and sick 
persons in the province. It was incorpo- 
rated in 1769 and had then collected by 
small contributions from time to time a 
considerable sum of money. There had 
been but one attempt before this to make 
provision for the insane, and that was 
the establishment of a separate ward for 
such persons in the Pensylvania Hospital 
in 1752. This Society also had its school. 
Later, 1777, the Mount Zion Society was 
established for the purpose of providing 
a school in the Camden District, at what is 
now Winnsboro, and in the same year 
the St David's Society, in the Old Cheraw, 
for a similar purpose, and the next year 
the Catholic Society, for the same purpose, 
in the Wateree. All these societies ac- 
cumulated large funds, almost all of 
which were destroyed during the late war. 

MUTUAL INSURANCE IN 1735. 
Societies were formed also for other than 
social, charitable and educational pur- 
poses. It has been claimed that t.he first 
American fire insurance company was or- 
ganized in Philadelphia in 1752, to wit, 
"The Philadelphia Contributor ship for the 
Insurance of Houses Against Losses by 
Fire," at the head of the directors of which 
appeared the name of Benjamin Franklin. 
But this is a mistake. As early as the 
13th of December, 1735, a notice appears in 
the South Carolina Gazette that gentle- 
men who are willing to enter a society for 
the mutual insurance of t.heir houses 
against fire are desired to meet at the 
house of William Pinckney, on the Bay, 
on Tuesday next, at 5 o'clock on the after- 
noon to carry out the design. On the 3d 



Of February the company was organized 
under the name of the Friendly Society. 
John Fenwicke, Samuel Wragg and 
Cbarles Pinckney were chosen directors. 
John Crookat and Henry Peronneau, mer- 
chants, (sic) Gabriel Manigault, treasurers. 
G. Van Velsen and John Laurens, firemas- 
ters. This, it will be observed, was seven- 
teen years before the organization of the 
Philadelphia company. 

There were fashionable taverns— not sa- _^ 
loons or bar rooms— 'nut old fashioned Eng- ! 
lish taverns, w.here entertainments were ^ 
had, and which gentlemen of leisure fre- 
quented. Mr Dillon's, at the corner of 
Church and Broad, "The Corner," as it 
was called, and Mrs Poinsett's, on the 
Bay, were the chief of-these. It was to 
t.hem that the processions from the Lib- 
erty Tree in honor of Wilkes, and the 
Massachusetts Anti-Rescinders marched, 
and tJiere the nnen went to refresh them- 
selves, and there they met toi discuss the 
affairs of the day. 

Mr Horace E. Scudder, in his report of 
the bureau of education. United States, in 
1876, on "Public Libraries a Hundred Years 
Ago." observes that the idea of a free pub- 
lic library could hardly find acceptance 
! until the idea of free public education had 
I become familiar lo men's minds, and the 
I libraries existing at the time of the Revo- 
I lution were necessarily representative of 
the existing state of public opinion on the 
subject of culture. They were, he says, 
with scarce an exception either connected 
directly with institutions of learning or 
the growth of associations of gentlemen 
having tastes or interests in common. Un- 
der this last the colonists of South Caro- 
lina claim a high position for education 
and culture. We .have seen that before 
the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
before Franklin had begun the foundation 
of his subscription library, such a library 
had already been attempted in Charles- 
town, and was actually existing before 
1700, and continued to exist and to be 
cared for until 1712, when an Act was 
passed for its further preservation, but 
.how long preserved we cannot tell, as we 
have no further record or mention of it. 

THE CHARLESTON LIBRARY SOCI- 
ETY. 

But in the year 1748 some young gentle- 
men, by contributing among themselves, 
imported a few books, and associated 
themselves for the purpose of raising a 
small fund to collect new pamphlets pub- 
lished in Great Britain. It will be recol- 
lected that political writings were then 
almost entirely confined to pamphlets. It 
was in pamphlets that Addison and Steele 
fought for the Whigs and Swift for the 
Tories. Dr Johnson's poiitical tracts and 
some of Edmund Burke's most valued I 
writings are contained in such papers. The 
troubles in America were the subjects of 
pamphlets both in England and in this / 
country. The last pamphlet from England ' 
was therefore eagerly read by all who were 
interested in the political world. These 
young men advanced and remitted to 
London £10 sterling as a fund to purchase 
such pamphlets as had already appeared 
during the current year, acting at first 
under a mere verbal agreement and with- 
out a name. From this small beginning 
they soon perceived the great advantages 
there might be if this scheme was en- 
larged and prosecuted with spirit. Find- 



10 



ing themselves alone unequal to the plan, 
they invited others to associate with them 
and were soon joined by other lovers of 
books and encouragers of science. A pub- 
lic library was projected, the idea met 
with great applause, and was counte- 
nanced by the first people of the place, 
Who became members of the infant so- 
ciety, extending its plan to endowing an 
academy to encourage men of literature 
to reside among them, and tO' instruct the 
youths in the several branches of a liberal 
education. Before the end of the year— on 
the 28th December— rules for the organiza- 
tion of the Society were ratified and 
signed, when the name of the Library 
Society was assumed; arrangements were 
at once made for the acquisition of books 
as well as of pamphlets. There was some 
delay in obtaining a charter, which re- 
quired the royal assent; the vessel in 
which it was sent from England falling 
into the hands of the French. This delay 
of eighteen months appears to have been 
considered very prejudicial tO' the enter- 
prise. Great store was set upon a charter 
as a means of enforcing its rules and pre- 
serving its books. 

The arrival of the charter at length gave 
new life to the Society. His Excellency, 
Governor Lyttleton. became - a member. 
Thomas Smith was the first president, and 
Daniel Crawford svicceeded him in 1757. 
In 1758 Governor L-yttleton was made pres- 
ident, and from that time the Governor 
or the Lieutenant Governor, in the ab- 
sence of a Governor, was the president, 
with the exception of Goveriior Boone. 
Thus Lieutenant Governor Bull was pres- 
ident from 1761 to- 1768; the colonists re- 
fusing to have any association with Gov- 
ernor Boone. Lord Montague was presi- 
dent in 1768-1769, and Lieutenant Governor 
Bull again to the Revolution. Daniel 
Crawford. Benjamin Smith and Peter 
Manigault— the twoi latter Speakers of the 
Commons — were vice presidents. The So- 
ciety was thus closely connected wth the 
Government, but it followed the popular 
sentiment. Thus we find Boone's personal 
unpopularity excluded him from the pres- 
idency; nor could Lord Montague be re- 
elected after the troubles of non-importa- 
tion had begun. The Society was the cen- 
tre of the intelligence, education and cul- 
ture of the people. The library was burnt 
in 1778. It then contained between 6,000 
and 7,000 volumes. 

THE TRUTH AS TO CAROLINA 
SCHOOLS. 
Upon the overthrow of the Proprietary 
and other establishments of the Royal 
Government the first Governor sent out 
was the eccentric, but liberal. Sir Francis 
Nicholson. Before his connection with 
the province he had made a contribution 
to the Provincial Library in 1712. and he 
now brought with him instructions for the 
encouragement of schools. Dr Ramsay 
unfortunately made a statement that 
there was no grammar school in South 
Carolina prior to 1730, except the free 
school in Charleston; that from 1730 till 
1776 there were no more than four or five, 
and all in or near Charleston. This state- 
ment of Dr Ramsay was and has been 
seized upon as the basis of the gravest 
charges of ignorance on the part of the 
colonists of South Carolina. Prof Mc- 
Master, in the first volume of his history 
of the United States, published in 1883, 



has enlarged upon and misquoted it to the 
great disadvantage of our people. 

"In the Southern States," he says, "ed- 
ucation was almost wholly neglected, but 
nowhere to such an extent as in South 
Carolina. In that colony, prior to 1730, 
no such thing as a grammar school ex- 
isted. Between 1731 and 1776 there were 
five. During the Revolution there were 
none. Indeed," he continues, "if the 
number of newspapers printed In any 
community may be taken as a gauge of 
the education of the people, the condition 
of the Southern States, as compared with 
the Eastern and Middle, was most deplor- 
able. In 1775 there were in the entire coun- 
try thirty-seven papers in circulation, j 
Fourteen of them were in New England, 1 
four were in New York and nine in Penn- ' 
sylvania; in Virginia and North Carolina 
there were two each; in Georgia one; in 
South Carolina three. The same is true 
of to-day." 

McMASTER'S SLANDERS NAILED. 

As a citizen of the State, then but ordi- 
narily informed upon the subject, I under- 
took to reply to this gross slander upon 
our people, and was enabled at once not 
only to expose Prof McMaster's misqvio- 
tation of what Dr Ramsay did write, but 
from materials immediately at hand to 
refute the charge and to show that Dr 
Ramsay himself was mistaken. I was 
able to show that at the close of the Rev- 
olution there were certainly eleven public, 
three charitable grammar schools, and 
eight private schools; that is, twenty-two 
schools in the twenty-four parishes and 
districts into which the State was then 
divided. Since that time I have pursued 
the subject, and in addition to other 
sources of information I have had the Ga- 
zettes searched, and am now able to pre- 
sent the following statement: 

During- the time when Prof McMaster 
states that no such thing as a grammar 
school existed in the province, i. e., prior 
to 1730, there was a free school in connec- 
tion with St Philip's Church, in which the 
Rev William Guy taught, from 1711 to 1728. 
then Mr Thomas Morrett in 1728, and then 
Mr John Lambert in 1729. There was an- 
other free school at St Jam°s. Goose Creek, 
in which Mr Benjamin Dennis had col- 
lected a good number of pupils in 1710. and 
taught until the school was broken iip by 
the Indian war in 1715. To this school the 
Rev Richard lAullam, when he died in 
1728, bequeathed his estate, some £1.000 
currency. In 1721 Richard Beresford de- 
vised and bequeathed a large estate for the 
support of the schoolmasters of St 
Thomas and St Dennis. In 1720 Mr James 
Child, laying out a projected town on the 
western branch of Cooner River, called 
Childsbury. now Strawberry, gave one 
snuare for a "college or nnivprsitv." £600 
and a lot for a free school and house, and 
in 1725 Mr John Whitm^irsh left a legacy 
of £1.000 for tho master of a fr^e school 
in St Paul's Parish, and in 1730 Ellas 
Horry devised a tract of land, containing 
7.50 acres, to be sold and the proceeds of 
sale to be appropriated to the creation and 
ner'^etual endowment of a charity school 
in Prince Ceorge's Parish. Thf>se were 
free or public grammar schools, but Law- 
son, as we have seen, stated that at the 
time he wrote, 1708, the colonists had "in- 
genious: people of most sciences" among 



11 



therii, "that educated their youth a la 
mode," that is, in private schools. 
MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED TEACH- 
ERS. 
But the interest which the colonists of 
South Carolina took in educational mat- 
ters, and the number of the teachers and 
schools in the province, appears infinitely 
greater from a perusal of the Gazettes 
from 1733 to 1774, than by the showing I 
was enabled to make when I wrote, in 
1883. During these forty years I have the 
record of more than four hundred adver- 
tisements relating to schools and school- 
masters, and from these it appears that 
instead of the five schools only which 
Prof McMaster states existed in the prov- 
ince, there were more than two hundred 
persons engaged in teaching. These were 
day schools, evening schools and boarding 
schools, schools for boys and schools for 
girls. A know'rdge of English, Latin and 
Greek could be obtained at any time after 
1712. French and music were taught con- 
stantly after 1733, Advertisements for 
teaching Italian appear in 1764, 
for Spanish in 1767 and Hebrew 
in 1769. "A young German of unde- 
niable character" gives notice in 1770 to 
"the nobility and gentry and public that 
he can teach grammatically French, High 
Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin." 
In instrumental music lessons were given 
upon the harpsicord, spinnet, violin, vio- 
loncello, guitar and flute. There were 
schools for fencing for the boys and for 
needlework and embroidery for the girls. 
The teachers were almost all from Eng- 
land, many of them clergymen and mas- 
ters of arts. There were many female 
teachers for the girls. Several of them 
came from London. Elizabeth Duneau, 
from England, "who," as she advertises, 
"has brought up many ladies of rank and 
distinction," and "has kept one of the 
genteelest boarding schools about Lon- 
don," proposes, in 1770. to open a boarding 
school for young ladies, in which she will 
teach grammatically the French and Eng- 
lish languages, geography, history and 
many instructing amusements to improve 
the mind," besides all kind of fashionable 
needle work, and will provide good teach- 
• ers in drawing, music, dancing, writings 
and arithmetic. Limners advertises to 
teach drawing as early as 17.36, and danc- 
ing was constantly taught from 1734, In 
this year a dancing school is opened, in 
which the Master, Mr Henry Holt, lately 
arrived in the province, advertises that 
he has been taught by the most celebrated 
master in England, and danced a consid- 
erable time at the play house. 

TIDDLEDY-IDDLEDY-RUM-TI-TUM. 

In 1760 Nicholas Valois gave notice that 
he continues tO' teach dancing and that 
he has received from London "forty of 
the newest country dances, jiggs. riga- 
doons, etc, by the best masters in London, 
which he proposes to teach." The next 
year he advertises a ball which he will 
give to his scholars, and will open the ball 
by dancing a minuet with one of them. 
There were two' other famous dancing 
schools, each of which gave balls to their 
pupils. Ramsay tells us that great atten- 
tion was paid to music and that many ar- 
rived at distinguished eminence in the sci- 
ence. The advertisements in the Gazette 
fully sustain this statement. In 1739 a per- 



son, lately arrived, proposes to teach "the 
art of psa^lmody, according to the exact 
rules of the gamut in all the various 
measures, both of the old and new ver- 
sion." Similar advertisements continue to 
appear. The organists of St Philip's 
Church added to their salaries by teach- 
ing music. 

In addition to the schools there were 
lectures upon educational subjects. In 
1739 Mr Anderson lectures on natural 
philosophy. In 1752 Mr Evans gave two 
courses of lectures on philosophy. He lec- 
tured every day, Sundays excepted. In 
1754 Robert Skidday, A, B., gave a course 
of lectures on natural philosophy, viz 
astronomy, mechanics, hydrostatics and 
optics. October 31, 1748, Samuel Domjen 
announces in the Gazette that, having in 
his travels in Europe studied and made 
wonderful experiments in electricity, he 
proposes to show the surprising effects 
thereof at Mr Blythe's Tavern, in Broad 
street, during the hours from 3 to 5 in the 
afternoon of Wednesday and Friday, and 
when desired will wait on ladies and gen- 
tlemen at their houses to show the same. 
"Each person admitted to see the same to 
pay 20f, who also may be electrified if they 
please." 

132 YEARS BEFORE THE TROLLEY 
CAME. 

Again in 1765 Mr William Johnson ad- 
vertises to give a course of lectures on 
"that instructive and entertaining branch 
of natural philosophy called electricity," 
The course was to consist of two lecture.^;, 
in which all the properties of that won- 
derful element, as far as the latest dis- 
coveries have made us acquainted there- 
with and the principal laws by which it 
acts, were to be demonstrated in a num- 
ber of curious experiments, many of which 
were entirely new. Among many other 
particulars Mr Johnson proposed to show 
that the electric fire commonly produced 
by friction of glass and other electrical 
substances isi not created by that friction, 
but is a real element or fluid body diffused 
through all places in or near the earth, 
and that our bodies contain enough of it 
at all times to set a house on flre. In 
his second lecture this flre was to be 
.shown tO' be real lightning, with many 
curious experiments representing the 
various phenomena of thunder storms. 

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NEWS- 
PAPERS. 
Fortunately for the people of South 
Carolina Prof McMaster. in his zeal to 
establish their ignorance, appeals to 
the number of newspapers as a gauge of 
■he education of a people, and by this 
'criterion he declares that the condition 
of the Southern people, in comparison 
with the Eastern and Middle, was most 
deplorable. For when we come to test the 
education of the people of the colonies by 
this measure we find in the colonies of 
which we have an estimate of population 
the ratio of newspapers to the number 
of the people as follows: New Hampshire 
had one paper to 82.200, Massachusetts one 
paper to 50,285, Connecticut one paper to 
49,340, Pennsylvania one paper to 36,666, 
while South Carolina had a paper to every 
20,000. In the whole country it was found 



12 



that the average population to support one 
paper was 64,575. In South Carolina 60,000 
people supported three newspapers, or one 
to every 20,000. In other \<'ords, the peo- 
ple of South Carolina in proportion to 
their numbers supported more than one 
and a half as many newspapers as Penn- 
sylvania, two and a half as many as 
Massachusetts and Connecticut each, and 
four times as many as New Hampshire. 
By Prof McMaster's own test South Caro 
Una was far the most highly educated 
colony in America. 

CHARLESTON'S NEWSPAPERS FROM 

1732. 

A very nearly complete file of these 
Gazettes from 17.32 is preserved in the 
Charleston library, and form a rich mine 
of historical information. A Gazette had 
always a column or two of news from 
Europe— the doings of the Court and pro- 
ceedings in Parliament. It had a page or 
two of advertisements of all kinds, ship- 
ping lists, etc. There was always short 
local paragraphs, in which are preserved 
most interesting items of personal and 
local history, sometimes invaluable in fix- 
ing definitely and decisively disputed dates. 
In these arc notices of births, deaths and 
marriages. In, announcing a marriage it 
was the custom to make some complimen- 
tary remark upon the bride: "She was a 
young lady of great beauty and blessed 
with the most valuable accomplishments." 
* * * "A lady of celebrated beauty' 
and merit, and endowed with every quali- 
fication that can render the nuptial state a 
happy one," etc. Sometimes her fortune 
was mentioned. Then there were moral 
and social essays, after the model and 
style of those in the Spectator and Ram- 
bler, all in the most approved Johnsonian 
periods. All political subjects were dis- 
cussed in the Gazettes. During the ex- 
citement over the non-importation agita-- 
tion the letters on this subject were often 
very bitter. The celebrated discussion be- 
tween Christopher Gadsden and William 
Henry Drayton was carried on in this 
way — the old patriot not hesitating to in- 
flict seven or eight columns of his wrath 
at a time upon his youthful but accom- 
plished adversary, in a style rambling and 
confused, Isut somehow always hitting 
"ihis^ mark. Corrimissary Garden takes a 
hand in the heated discussion upon t^he 
subject of the treatment of smallpox. The 
question of inoculation is discussed; 
whether it is not tempting the wrath of 
God in thus claiming to anticipate the 
dread disea.?e. There were but few edi- 
torials. But Timothy in the South Caro- 
line Gazette was always warring against 
the importation of negro slaves, because 
of the danger from their increasing num- 
ber in proportion to the whites. Wells, of 
the American General Gazette, was earlj 
accused of lukewarmness to the patriot 
cause, an accusation which was confirmed 
by his going over to the British when they 



took the city, and his paper becoming the 
Royal Gazette. 

INTERCOURSE WITH ENGLAND. 
■ A marked difference between the people 
of South Carolina and those of the other 
colonies was in their intercourse with 
England. Prof McMaster tells us that as 
late as 1795 a gentleman, whO' had been 
abroad, was pointed out in the streets, 
even in large cities, with the remark: 
"There goes a man who has been to Eu- 
rope." There were few gentlemen in South 
Carolina who had not been to Europe. 
With the accumulating wealth of the pro- 
vince it became the fashion after 1750, if 
not before, to send the children of the 
opulent to England for their whole edu- 
cation. Many of the young men whO' came 
into public life just before the Revolution 
spent the whole of their youth in England 
or Scotland, first at Eaton or some other 
school, and then at Oxford or Cambridge. 
Thus it was that Chief Justice Pinckney, 
when removed from the Bench to give 
place to Mr Peter Leigh, for whom the 
ministry of England had to provide in 
reward for doubtful services, and sent as 
ihe agent of South Carolina to London, 
took with him his two young sons, Charles* 
Cotesworth and Thomas, and William 
Henry Drayton. Mr Ralph Izard took 
up his residence in England for the educa- 
tion of his children, and left them there 
at school. Besides these Arthur Middle- 
ton, Thomas Heyward, Thomas Lynch, 
.Ir, three of the signers of the Declaration 
of Independence, were sent to England for 
their education, the fourth signer, Edward 
Rutledge, also going there to study law. 
Christopher Gadsden, John Rutledge, 
Henry Laurens, John Laurens. Gabriel 
Manigault, Peter Manigault and William 
Wragg were also educated in England. 
Before and after the Revolution, says 
Hugh S. Legare in a note to his essay on 
classical learning, many, perhaps it would 
be more accurate to say most, of the 
youth of South Carolina of opulent fami- 
lies were educated in English schools and 
universities. There can be no doubt, he 
adds, that their attainments in polite' 
literature were very far superior to those 
of their cotemporaries at the North, 
and the standard of scholarship in Charles- 
ton was consequently much higher than 
any other city on the Continent. 

FAVORITE ENGLISH PACKETS. 
The merchants of Charleston went con- 
stantly to England to order their goods. 
The people of means, whether for busi- 
ness or pleasure, were continually com- 
ing and going between London and 
Charleston. A voyage usually took from 
six to eight weeks. For some years prior 
to the Revolution the favorite packets 
were the Beaufain, Capt Daniel Curling, 
the London, Capt Alexander Curling, and 
the Little Carpenter, so named after the 
Indian chief. But Capt Daniel Curling was 
the favorite of all. It was slow, but con- 



13 



sidered sure, a.nd could obtain freight 
while other vessels were idle, and its cabin 
was preferred by all who wished to cross 
or recross the Atlantic. It seldom sailed 
without a full company of Carolinians. 

EDUCATIONAL, BENEFACTORS. 

The colonists of South Carolina were lib- 
eral and public-spirited. Of this there is 
abundant evidence. From the preamble 
to the Act of 1710, establishing- the free 
school, we learn that several charitable 
and well disposed Christians by their 
last wills and testaments had already 
given several sums of money for the found- 
ing of that school. Then had followed the 
Ludlam devise and the Beresford bounty 
fund. Then the Childs devise and be- 
quest. The Ludlam bequest was liberally 
added to by subscription for the school at 
Goose Creek. Dr Dalcho, writing of the 
year 1728, says the desire for the educa- 
tion of the rising generation was now gen- 
erally felt through the province. Many 
pious persons had bequeathed portions of 
their estates for this benevolent purpose, 
and many contributed largely by their 
subscriptions. In St Paul's Parish a con- 
siderable sum was raised for founding a 
free school for the education of the poor, 
for which purpose John Whitmarsh be- 
queathed a legacy of £1,000, and Mr Horry 
left by his will a tract of land of 750 acres, 
as we have mentioned. The old St Philip's 
Church, which was built during the Pro- 
prietary Government, and which Edmund 
Burke described as "spacious, and executed I 
in a very handsome taste, exceeding every 
thing of that kind which we have in I 
America," as well as St Michael's, built 1 
some thirty years later, and which is still 
famous for the beauty of its steeple, were 
both built not only by funds derived from 
taxation, but largely from private sub- I 
scription. St Michael's bells, now so fa- j 
mous, were purchased by public subscrip- 
tion. [ 

GAVE MONEY TO NORTHERN COL- | 
LEGES. 

It will probably astonish Prof McMas- 
ter to be told that South Carolinians sub- 
scribed largely to the founding of the 
university in which he was formulating 
his charge of their gross ignorance and 
deplorable lack of interest in education. 

But such is undoubtedly the fact. The 
story is an interesting one, and, though it 
is so late, I must briefly tell it. The habit 
was, as we have stated, to send the young 
men of Carolina to England for their ed- 
ucation. But the differences with the 
mother country warned our people of the 
necessity of providing for the higher edu- 
cation of their sons at home. "Carolina- 
cus," writing in the Gazette of November 
9, 1769, during the discussion of the non- 
importation agreement, calls attention to 
the great sums of money annually re- 
mitted to England to maintain the chil- 
dren there, and urges the example of our 
Northern provinces in educating their 



youths at home. Lieutenant Governor 
Bull, absolutely opposed, as he himself 
was, to the non-importation agitation, 
seized upon the occasion, however, to take 
up the subject. On the .30th January, 1770, 
he sent to the Assembly a special mes- 
sage, a very elaborate and able paper, in 
which he urged more liberal provision for 
the mas:ers of the free schools, and be- 
yond that went on to advise the establish- 
ment of a college. 

In pursuance of this recommendation a 
bill was drawn "for funding, erecting and 
endowing public schools, and a college 
for the education of the youth of the 
j province;" a considerable part of this bill 
i is in the handwriting of John Rutledge. 
A board of trustees, of which the Gover- 
nor and Speaker of the Commons were to 
be ex-offlcio members, to be called "the 
trustees of the College of South Carolina." 
was to be appointed. There was to be a 
president, who should be professor of di- 
vinity at a salary of £350 sterling per an- 
num; a professor of the civil and common 
law and of the municipal laws of the 
province, with a salary of £200 sterling; a 
professor of physics, anatomy, botany and 
chemistry, £200; a professor of mathemat- 
ics and of natural and experimental phi- 
losophy, £200; a professor of history, chro- 
nology and modern language, £200. To 
John Rutledge is usually attributed the 
credit of having made the suggestion of 
this college from the fact that the bill was 
mostly in his handwriting; but the mes- 
sage of Lieutenant Governor Bull clearly 
indicates that he was the author of this 
attempt to provide a plan for higher ed- 
ucation in the colony, though no doubt he 
had John Rutledge's hearty co-operation. 
But the attention of the people was not to 
be diverted from the political controversy. 
They were all aflame on account of the 
non-importation agreement and could 
think of nothing but the meetings and 
doings under the Liberty Tree. 
TWO SOLICITORS FOR NORTHERN 

COLLEGES. 
While Governor Bull could not induce 
the General Assembly to forego the dis- 
pute with the Royal Government suffl- 
ciently to attend to the matter of the pro- 
motion of colleges for higher education, 
the Northern colonies saw the opportuni- 
ty of raising funds for the support of 
their institutions and availed themselves 
of it. The Gazette of the 15th February. 
1770, announced: "We have now here no 
less than two solicitors for benefactions 
to colleges in Northern colonies, viz: The 
Rev Hezekiah Smith, who collects for one 
intended to be established in Rhode Isl- 
and Government, the president whereof 
always is to be a Baptist and the major- 
ity of the trustees of the .same profession; 

the other, the Rev Caldwell, who has 

met with great success in gathering for 
that established in Princeton, in New Jer- 
sey, and we are told if this continues we 
may expect annual visits for the support 



14 



of those foundations. Surely if we can af- 
ford this, we ought not to delay procur- 
ing- an establishment here for the benefit 
of our posterity." Two years later, March 
26, 1772, the Gazette announces: "The Rev 
Doct William Smith, we are assured, has 
collected not less than one thousand 
pounds sterling in the short time he has 
been here by donations for the use of the 
college, an evident proof of how liberally 
and readily the inhabitants of this prov- 
ince would contribute to promote so neces- 
sary and desirable an establishment 
among themselves. 

OVER £1.000 STERLING FOR THE UNI- 
VERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
In the minutes of the board of trustees 
of the College of Philadelphia— now Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania — :n which Prof 
McMaster wrote his charge of the ignor- 
ance of South Carolina, there is an order 
of date April 1.5, 1772, "that the names of 
the several gentlemen who so> kindly con- ^ 
tributed towards the college in collec- 
tions made for the same in South Caro- 
lina be inserted in the book as a per- 
petual testimony of the obligation which 
this seminary is under to them." The list 
is headed by Lieutenant Governor Bull 
himself with a contribution of £150 South 
Carolina currency. Henry Middleton £350, 
Thomas Smith £350, Gabriel Manigault 
£700, Miles Brewton £275, Charles Pinck- 
ney £147, Christopher Gadsden £140, 
Thomas Ferguson £350, and so on, almost 
every man in the colony of any promi- 
nence contributing, and making up a sum 
equivalent to £1,061 10s Id sterling. The 
people of South Carolina thus contributed 
to the establishment of three of the great 
institutions of learning in the country- 
Princeton, Brown University and the 
Pennsylvania University. 

EARLY PROMINENCE IN MEDICINE. 

In a paper by J. M. Toner, M. D., founder 
of the Jones lectures in Washington, pub- 
lished by the bureau of education in Wash- 
ington, Dr Toner says: "The Carolinas 
from a comparatively early period fur- 
nished numerous valuable contributions 
to the literature of medicine and natural 
history, and for some years led all the 
States in the study of the natural sciences. 
In support of this Dr Jones refers to- the 
early and successful introduction of the 
practice of inoculation at Charleston, to 
the writings of Drs John Lining, Lionel 
Chalmers, John Moultrie and Alexander 
Garden. He states that William Bull, the 
Lieutenant Governor, who was gradu- 
ated at Leyden in 1734, was the first native 
American who received the degree of M. 
D. But this is a mistake, for George 
Smith, son of the Ijandgrave, took such a 
degree thirty-four years before — in 1700. 
AN INTERESTING RECAPITULATION 

The society of Charleston and of the 
colony was in a more developed condition 
than that of any city or colony in America. 



There was in it more of city life. The next 
in this respect was Philadelphia. This 
will be recognized when we recall the fol- 
lowing facts: The colonists of Carolina 
were the first to establish a public li- 
brary, i. e., before 1700, and the second to 
found a subscription library, 1. e., in 174S; 
the first subscription library being th* 
Philadelphia Library, 1730-1742. The library 
at Harvard, 1632, having been originally 
but a clergyman's library, gi.ven to the col- 
lege, and in no sense a public library; no 
more so than the parochial libraries estab- 
lished by the Act of 1704 in this colony. 
They were the second to establish a 
quarantine for preventing the spreading 
of contagious diseases, 1. e., 1698— 
the first quarantine was in Massachusetts 
in 1648— the third in Pennsylvania, 1649. The 
colonists of Carolina were far in advance 
of any other colony in their code of laws, 
general and colonial, adopted in 1712. 
They were among the very first to 
establish free schools, i. e., in 1710-12. 
The people of Charlestown were the first 
in America to establish a theatre, i. e., 
in 1735, the next being that in Philadel- 
phia in 1749. They were the first to form 
a fire insurance company, i. e., in 1735; the 
next being in Philadelphia in 17.52. They 
were the second only to attempt provision 
for the insane, i. e., 1762; the first being in 
Philadelphia in 1752. The first two native 
American graduates in medicine were 
South Carolinians. South Carolina led all 
the colonies in the sciences. The music 
of the St Cecilia Society was the first to 
be heard in America. Her agriculture, i. 
e., of rice and indigo, was the most scien- 
tific in the country, the former demanding 
hydraulic engineering upon a large scale, 
the evidence of her immense system of 
internal drainage still remaining alike in 
the great ditches and canals found in the 
inland swamps and upon the pages of the 
statute books of the time; the latter re- 
quiring the closest observation and fol- 
lowing of chemical operations in the pre- 
paration of the dye, after the plant had 
been successfully grown. Judged by the 
standard of the number of newspapers 
the colonists of South Carolina were the 
most educated people in America; having 
more newspapers in proportion to their 
numbers than any other colonists; more 
than twice as many as in New England. 

Diaries were frequently kept. One by 
the wife of a merchant, which has been 
preserved, contains a record of births, 
deaths and marriages of the friends of 
the writer. Guests arriving, occasionally 
breakfasting and frequently dining, sup- 
ping or taking tea— all of whom are 
named— are numerous— Governors Glen 
and Lyttleton, with other guests, dining 
with the family. Governor Boone does 
not appear in the diary. Attendance at 
private and assembly balls, and at plays, 
with lists of plays performed. Attendance 
on Whitefield's preaching; sitting for a 
portrait by Theus. An'ival of troops, 



15 



marching: of troops, officers' balls. Re- 
joicing for the captures of Cape Breton 
and Quebec. No dinners to Governors after 
1770, when the troubles with the mother 
country had become serious, though LrOid 
William Campbell was connected with tlie 
family. 
MRS RAVENBL'S EXCELLENT WORK 

But we are still more fortunate in hav- 
ing a most extraordinarily valuable and 
entertaining picture of social and domes- 
tic life in South Carolina during the period 
from 1737 to the Revolution in Mrs Rave- 
nel's volume, entitled "Eliza Pinckney," 
recently published by the Scribners in 
their series of the women of Colonial and 
Revolutionary times. This most charm- 
ing book is based upon a number of 
hitherto unpublished letters written by 
;ind to Mrs Pinckney, and depicting in 
great detail and with an indescribable 
charm the manners, customs and mode of 
life of her day — thus having a decided his- 
torical as well as intimate personal inter- 
est. 
A NORTHERN LOYALIST'S VIEWS. 

J. P. D. Smyth, a Loyalist of Philadel- 
phia, who travelled over the country im- 
mediately after the Revolution, and whose 
statements m,ust be taken with caution, 
as he was much prejudiced, but the gen- 
eral truthfulness of whose picture of the 
state of society and manners of the peo- 
ple of the colonies has been fully recog- 
nized, describes the planters and mer- 
cants of South Carolina as well bred, the 
people showy and expensive in their dress. 
Everytliing conapirod tO' make Charles- 
town the liveliest, the pleasantest and the 
politest place, as it is the richest, in all 
America. The large fortunes, he says, 
that have been acquired in the city from 
the accession and circulation of its trade 
must necessarily have had great influ- 
ence on the manners of the inhabitants, 
for of all the towns in North America It 
is the one in which the conveniences of 
luxury are most to be met with. Says an- 
other, a more recent writer, the planters 
were travellers, readers, scholars; the so- 
ciety of Charleston compared well in re- 
finement with that of any city of its size 
in the world, and English visitors long 
thought it the most agreeable in Ameri- 
ca. 



The m,erchants of Charlestown, unlike 
those of New England, were prospering 
and contented, and the planters in South 
Carolina were growing rich, but the 
very wealth of the province bore with it 
the seeds of dissatisfaction. While the 
merchants themselves were busy in their 
trade, and the planters with their ever- 
increasing crops, they cared little for the 
spoils of office, w^ii.cn were enjoyed by 
the placemen whom the lords of trade in 
England were now sending out to fill the 
best places in the province, still they had 
begun to think that with their wealth the. 
highest honors of the province should be 
open to them. Josiah Quincy records that 
he heard several of them say: "We, none 
of us, when we grow old can expect the 
honors of the State: they are all given 
away to worthless, poor sycophants." The 
young men returning home were more 
restless under the condition of affairs. 
For twenty-five or thirty years before the 
Revolution, as we have seen, the Caro- 
linians had been sending their sons to Eu- 
rope for education, and these, coming 
home, accomplished and highly educated 
men, many of whom had been admitted 
to the highest circles in England, and 
filled with ambition, were not content to 
see incompetent and sometimes vulgar 
and insolent strangers filling the places 
for which they felt themselves equal, and 
to which they considered they had a right 
to aspire. The cases of Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor Bull and of Chief Justice Pinckney 
were warnings to them that native char- 
acter and ability were of no account when 
places were to be found in the colonies 
with which the ministry might reward 
party services at home. Coming from 
Westminster, where they had been ac- 
customed tO' see Mansfield and Camden 
presiding, they turned with disgust from 
the Court in which Skinner, the buffoon, 
sat and disgraced the Bench. The seat 
in Council and on the Bench, where their 
fathers and grandfathers had sat, bringing 
to the service ol the Crown, without re- 
ward, wisdom and ability and the most 
devoted loyalty were now filled by hench- 
men, whO' had come over to Carolina for 
the sake of a few paltry pounds. This 
was the canker which had begun to sap 
the loyalty of the people of Carolina. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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